The Dregs of Cold Harbour
by Stuart James
Summary: Adriana has had word of the emergence of Daughters of Cold Harbour in Skyrim.
1. Chapter 1

Adriana leaps down from the cart as it halts near the Markarth stables then tries to pull her robe tighter around herself. Skyrim is colder than she'd expected and even someone with her disease still feels the cold.

"Alright, then!" the cart driver, Kibell says.

Adriana looks to him, then walks to the front of the cart to look up at him still sitting in the driver's seat.

"Alright, then, what?" she quietly demands of him. She stands with her hands on her hips, allowing the skirt of her small robe to ruffle titillatingly in the wind as she wears nothing beneath.

"We're here?" he offers, "Um... Our business is concluded! Uh... I was just sayin'... you know..." he becomes nervous of the look she is giving him, or rather, through him, despite the free show and her indifference to it, which only seems menacing right now.

"You were just saying what?"

"I... I, I, I, I mean..."

Her grey blue eyes narrow into darkness and he flinches with his hands coming up to his face.

"Hm." she gives a wry smile and brushes the skirt of her robe back into place with a few strokes to little effect, then turns to walk casually and provocatively up the path and stone steps to the massive Dwemer gates into the city of Markarth, now enjoying the cool night air prickling her body.

"My, my, my, now there's a sight." the hostler, Cedran comments of Adriana as he approaches Kibell's cart from his stable house.

"Don't even." Kibell says. "I'm pretty sure she's one of them... vampires or what'cha call it."

"Oh..." Cedran responds to this news continuing to look on at the beautiful sight, but with a tone suggesting that while it may be an inconvenience, her vampirism might not be a total obstacle. "You not going to uh... hm..." he gesticulates to the guardsmen milling around the entrance, making it clear that he won't be getting involved himself by leaving it at that.

"I've enough to contend with driving this damn cart during dragon attacks, a civil war, the Thalmor pokin' around, and whatever else the Aedra and Daedra see fit to inflict on us. And that's on top of the bandits, bears, wolves, giants, and everything else usually trying to kill me on my rounds."

"Oh yes..." Cedran philosophically agrees but with little interest, "I quite see your point, of course."

Adriana reaches the gates and tosses her short black bobbed hair to one side with a flick of a hand. One of the guardsmen immediately steps up to politely open it for her.

"Still..." Cedran watches her give a small, girlish curtsey in thanks before she enters, accentuating her womanly curves momentarily, "There's worse ways to go..." then he gives a dirty laugh.

...

Using the night as cover, Adriana picks the lock of the old abandoned house in Markarth, slips in and slowly shuts the door, checking through the narrowing doorway that no-one has seen her.

"Adriana." a deep dark voice fills the air. "It has been some time since we convened."

"My Lord." she acknowledges and continues deeper into the damp and unkempt stone house.

Reaching the basement, Adriana sees an excavation deeper into the rock bed.

"Come. Deeper. Into... the bowels..." her master beckons, never tiring of the amusement at this choice of wording and indeed, causes a slight frown and pause in Adriana, and her master laughs.

She continues on down a narrow passage cut into the softer earth and remnants of Dwemer structures to see the shrine to her master, the Daedric Lord Molag Bal.

"Come..." he beckons once more.

Adriana strides up to his altar, his carved visage gurning at her from the dark, bloodied font and she kneels prostate in submission.

"And what would you have of me, my Dreg?"

"I had word of the emergence of Daughters of Coldharbour in Skyrim, my Lord. Our Lady Serana."

"And you came to pay homage, like a good little Dreg?"

"Yes, my Lord." she agrees but his tone evidently irks her.

"And I presume you also had word of my little shrine here somehow. How resourceful of one so weak."

"Yes, my Lord." she says through gritted teeth.

"Yes I sense you are still not happy with our arrangements?"

"I performed the ritual." she begins angrily, "I..." she doesn't complete. "The whole family!" she shouts, "For nothing! To be just another of the herd."

"None go into the ritual knowing for certain that they will be gifted as a Daughter of Cold Harbour."

"Then why? Why not me? Why Serana?"

"Oh Adriana. Still motivated by courtly rivalry after all this time? Serana has something you've never learned: a sense of duty."

"But-"

"What do you think I might want of my higher vampires and the Daughters of Cold Harbour? Hm? Those who I gift are responsible for ensuring equilibrium. I thought that my Dregs understood this?"

"I cull the herd when they become unruly! I know duty!"

"You know that duty. But not the duty to all of the diseased, the Daughters of Cold Harbour and the herd alike."

"Yes, my Lord..." she give submission.

The Dregs of Cold Harbour, those who suffered the humiliating and degrading ritual only to be refused the dark lord's highest gifts, instead being cast into the herd and charged with policing the baser ones.

...

Adriana has headed to the Rift and the Redwater Den seeking further answers, still in her meagre attire. Adriana has lived long enough to know that her figure is striking and uses that against her foes. To those who would lust after dark mysterious women, there is always a shocked, hesitant moment of pause when she steps out of the darkness to quietly bring about their demise.

"If you're here for skooma head on down, otherwise, piss off!" a Bosmer in furs seated at the entrance to the skooma den shouts towards Adriana as she approaches the decrepit hut.

"Don't ever speak to me like that again." Adriana says coldly as she passes the elf to use the ladder down to the den itself.

"Hm..." the lookout says once Adrian is out of hearing range, "I hate those hoity-toity ones."

"What?" her companion asks, coming round from his watch post at the front.

"The stuck up ones, they really get on my wick. I mean, what's the problem? They're pretty much immortal, aren't they? Why bother being an ass as well?"

"I don't know. I don't even want to be here. You do remember that you're a thrall, right?"

"Oh, I just try to make the best of a bad situation."

"Tsk." he returns to his post. "Bosmer..."

Adriana descends the stairs she finds at the base of the ladder to be confronted by a further watchman, this one in full armour.

"We're closed." he says, holding up his two handed hammer in defence.

Adriana puts a leggy foot forward to bring up her hand and show a ring on her finger. His face registers half relief and half panic when he sees it and he lets down his guard.

"Oh... Oh! Well we've had a little trouble, you see. Sorry about all that with the hammer, heh."

"Well at least your master has taught you well to know what I am, now explain."

"Well... some of the Volkihar vampires turned up here, I assumed just to check we're not out of control here, and we're not! I can assure you!"

"Just tell me what happened."

"Well, they checked on the red skooma production and headed deeper into the caves. Then this... this... well, she just tore the place up! Killed all the vampires she could find."

"She?"

"Yea, some of the other thralls think it was that Dragonborn everyone's talking about but well... I'm not sure the one who defeated Alduin the World Eater would be involved in such things."

"Dragonborn?" she queries.

"You not heard of the Dragonborn? Where've you been? Stuck in a cave? Ha! I mean, oh. No. I didn't mean because you're a vampire that... well I didn't mean..."

"Just be quiet and only speak when spoken to from now on. So who is this Dragonborn and where might I find her?"

"You really don't know?"

"Assume I don't."

"She's some kind of master of the voice, used it to defeat Alduin so I hear. Whiterun's probably a good place to start. I'm pretty sure she has a base there."

"Good." Adrian says then steps in towards him. "Now. I'm hungry. Be a good thrall."

He smiles nervously and fearfully but offers his neck regardless. She moves in, piercing his neck with her teeth and his face turns to terror as she bites deeper and harder until she pulls away taking veins and sinew with her. She spits the flesh back at his face and the thrall drops to the floor in spasms clutching his neck, blood gushing from his gargling open throat. Adrian straddles him to lap up the oozing blood in long strokes, grinding a little as she does, utilising the death throws of her victim until he lies still, but she grabs around his body to grind harder now that he no longer does it for her. Adriana's hips writhe until she lets out a long satisfied breathe with a shudder, then stands and straightens her clothing.

"I decide which of the herd are unruly." she states to the corpse as she stands then wipes with her fingers under her skirt and brings them up to taste herself for a perverse but delicious dessert. Her work done, Adrian heads back up to the ladder.

"Good day." the Bosmer greets Adriana this time, before she is met with Adrianas open palm against her nose, pushing the bone up into her skull cavity. Death is almost instantaneous. The other thrall is already sprinting into the forest. She considers giving chase but why bother; a thrall without a master is nothing and she's just satisfied her tastes and desires.

Adriana considers this new information. Is this Dragonborn a threat to all vampires? Are the Daughters of Cold Harbour safe? Only finding out more about the mysterious saviour of Skyrim will give her the answers she seeks.

...

"I used to be an adventure like you-"

"What?"

"...then I took an arrow to the knee." the Whiterun gate guard delivers his 'punchline' with a knowing wink.

"Why are you telling me this?" Adriana demands.

"Oh. You know, we just like to make all our visitors feel welcome."

"By jabbering nonsense at them?"

"Well. If you didn't like that one. Umm... Heard about you and your honeyed words!"

"Just shut up and open the gate before I slit your throat."

"Now. Killing people is definitely one of the things we discourage, and I'd hate to have to drag a pretty girl like you into the Dragonsreach dungeon."

"You can't if you're dead."

"Oh. Well. Someone will then."

"Not if they don't see me."

"Ah. Now. That's where you're wrong. The court mage uses clairvoyance to find out who committed crimes, so we always know. Hmm!" he says smugly.

"You want to test that theory?"

"Ummm... I'll open the gate now."


	2. Chapter 2

The gates of Whiterun open and through them Lisette walks, with Erdi the court maid following behind.

"I still don't know why you insisted on us coming here." Erdi says.

"What?" Lisette stops to turn and face her, annoyed that none of this bothers her. "Do you want to be known as a local slag of Solitude, as you part your gorgeous knees?"

Erdi's thighs close up as she winces a little but then looks petulantly at Lisette.

"You know what? I don't care! Mikael was about the most interesting thing that's ever happened for me. That he was bedding you too just made it more exciting! So what if he sings a few songs about us. I'm nobody in Solitude."

"You do know how your part goes, don't you? He effectively says you're a whore, that you'll work on your back for coin."

"Well it's never brought me any trade, I can tell you!"

"Erdi!" Lisette berates.

"Well...?"

"I used to be an adventurer like you-"

"Do we look like adventurers?!" Lisette fiercely interrupts the guardsman. "Is there only one brain for all the guardsmen of Skyrim to share or something?!"

"What is it with you people today?!" he holds up his hands in exasperation then returns to his post with a huff and a puff.

"Let's just go home." Erdi says.

"Can we at least still get a bed? It's getting late and I don't want to be riding the cart in the dark."

"Okay then. But if we do bump into Mikael can we try and keep it civil?"

"I suppose. Unless he sings the song." Lisette says and they walk up the path towards the Bannered Mare.

"You really think he's that crass?"

"Regardless of whether you're personally bothered about that song or not, you have to ask if Mikael the Bard is crass?!"

"He's the most amazing bard I've ever seen!" Ysolda enthuses as she passes them at the well in the centre of the small marketplace, coming from taking flowers up to Dragonsreach.

"Well..." Lisette says with some pride, "you obviously haven't seen me."

Ysolda does a U-turn to stop in front of Lisette and look her up and down.

"Hmm. Not my type." she nonchalantly says then continues on towards the Bannered Mare and Lisette's pride drops a little.

Mortals. Pathetic. Adriana watches these petty exchanges from the steps of the Bannered Mare where she sits leaning back on an elbow. As Ysolda passes, Adriana drops a knee to spread and display proudly her mound.

"Am I your type?" she says with a grin. "Because I'm at a loose end right now..."

"Oh!" is as much as she replies to Adriana, who is now laughing at the bewildered expression on Ysolda's face as she rushes into the tavern.

Adriana stands, pleased with her work and brushes the dust from her behind with a few short swipes, then stretches her arms out and sighs. Up the path come two more figures and Adriana tries to assess. Nords, she thinks, one dark haired the other red, though the dark one seems like the warrior, the redhead less so wearing just a vest and pants with thigh boots. Perhaps this dark warrior is the one she seeks.

"Are you the one they call Dragonborn?" she calls out to this warrior in Daedric armour.

"Lydia?" the redhead shouts back scoffing, "The Dragonborn?" then she laughs heartily.

"It's not that funny, my thane..." Lydia says.

"Anyway," the redhead calms her laughter, "I thought you Miraak praising types all buggered off when I did him in."

"Miraak?" Adriana says, with no clue to this name.

"Oh. You're not one of them then...? Hm. Who are you then?"

"Are you the Dragonborn?" Adriana asks again.

"LAAS!" the Dragonborn shouts, then she stands back with a hand on her chin. "Hm. Thought so. Vampire."

Adriana squints at her, unsure if it is the time to fight or flee, or neither.

"Is that a problem?" she probes for the answer.

"Well not if you're going to behave. Me? The only person I eat nowadays is my Lyd." she giggles and gives Lydia a smack on the behind.

"Lux!" Lydia shouts out. "Do you have to?"

Luxuria moves in closely to Lydia with feigned coyness.

"Aw, you still love me though, don't ya? Don't ya?"

"This is all very entertaining but if you are the Dragonborn-"

"Which I am. Luxuria the... Dragonborn. That's me." Luxuria says with pride.

"Good. Well. Then we should talk. Somewhere private?"

A tankard crashes out of a tavern window, flying through the air to land with a rattling clang on the stone paving amongst tinkling glass shards.

"Did I see Lisette walking up ahead of us?" Luxuria says with a raised eyebrow.

"The blonde bard and her friend?" Adriana says.

"Hm. Well that's probably only the start of it then. We'd best go to Breezehome to talk. But I must say first," Luxuria says seriously, "I'm the Dragonborn, I stopped Alduin the World Eater, I stopped Miraak the first Dragonborn, I stopped Lord Harkon from blocking out the sun, I've got more Daedric relics than you can shake a stick at, wealth, and I've got my Lyd." which she duly punctuates with a buttock slap to her partner.

"Lux!" Lydia says.

"So am I motivated to go on some mighty quest to do some dangerous crap for you? For which I'll no doubt get a relative pittance? I'm just saying, this had better be good."

The door to the Bannered Mare opens with a bang and Mikael sprinting from the tavern. A tankard follows through the open door, whistling past his ear then pinging down the cobbled path followed by a lute bouncing with a discordant twang, and he keeps on running towards the main gates.

"You'd better run!" Lisette screams from the doorway. "If I ever see you again I'll cut your balls off!"

"Ladies!" Mikael manages to shout out with a finger to his forelock on his way past Lux's group.


	3. Chapter 3

De-sensitised, they'd say, but she's always felt like this, even before the disgusting and humiliating things she did with her father, her mother, her whole family to gain Molag Bal's favour only to be cast aside. The subsequent slaughter of both mortal and vampire alike, she might concede that that makes her more able now, able to see them just as they are, meat and always headed to the void but she would have cared little before. There is only Adriana, but her duty gives her power.

"So," Luxuria says as she sits and they settle themselves around the fire in the small house of Breezehome, "what's this all about then, hm?"

"Lord Harkon is defeated?" Adriana also sits.

"Yup. Turned into a pool of red goo right before my eyes."

"You killed him?"

"Yes..." Luxuria gives a suspicious eye.

"And our Lady Serana?" Adriana asks expectantly.

"Serana? What's this about, before I start giving out information on my friends."

There is a momentary paused glare and tut from Lydia at this statement, which Luxuria ignores.

"She's a friend?" Adriana says with a quizzical look. Daughters of Cold Harbour with friends? And a mortal at that.

"Is everything a question with you?" Lux says with annoyance.

"But she lives?"

"Yes, she lives. Well as much as a vampire does anyway."

"And her mother, our Lady Valerica?"

"Yes, she's safe too. Please, what's this about?"

"Do you know what this means?" Adriana imposingly show her ring.

"Ummm..." Luxuria looks over the ring then offers facetiously, "that you're married?"

"You implied by the tavern that you used to be of the herd?"

"Hm. I suppose I did." Lux says.

"Yet your masters did not teach you well."

"What's the ring mean then?"

"I am what is known as a..." Adriana pauses on the words, despising the term and its implied lowliness, "...a Dreg of Cold Harbour. It is my duty to serve the Daughters of Cold Harbour, and cull the herd should they become unruly."

"A vampire vampire hunter, eh?" Lux finds it amusing.

"Make no mistake. I am still very much a vampire. Do not under-estimate me."

"Alright!" Lux says, "No need to get your knickers in a twist! Well, if you wore any. Anyway, I'm a dragon slayer and a master in just about every art known to man but you don't hear me banging on about it!"

"Quite. But Serana?"

Luxuria raises a brow to peer at Adriana, assessing this vampire vampire hunter. She knows what it is to revel in the slaughter, to embrace power and enjoy unquestioned perverse pleasures but Serana stood by Lux to take the life of her own father. Luxuria can't give her up that easily, but this vampire intrigues her.

"She's somewhere you're really not interested in going right now, so here's what I'm going to do: I'll see Serana alone, get the lay of the land and her thoughts on all this. That's as much as I'm doing. If Serana wants to come and meet you, fine, that's her call. But if she doesn't, then don't expect anything more from me. If she says you're any kind of threat, well... we'll just have to play that by ear, won't we?"

"Our Lady's wishes are my wishes." Adriana says.

"Good!"

"Do you need anything else from me tonight, my thane?" Lydia asks, motioning towards the stairs and bed.

"Nothing we can do in front of guests, Lyd, but thanks for offering. I'll be up in a mo."

"Good night then, my thane." Lydia says, then leans in to give Lux a kiss goodnight and heads up the stairs.

"Is she your servant or your lover?" Adriana asks.

"Lyd? A bit of both." Lux answers enigmatically.

"A fine looking woman to do as she's told when you want." Adriana says suggestively.

"My woman." Lux says firmly.

Adriana gives a smirk, once again pleased she'd found the right buttons on a soul to irk them.

"I still don't know your name." Luxuria says, "Who shall I say wants to see Serana then?"

"Knowing that I'm a Dreg will be enough."

…

Luxuria approaches Castle Dawnguard, receiving the occasional wave in greeting from the warriors practising their arts of war in the open area at the front but she doesn't stop for pleasantries and heads straight up to the main entrance. Closing the heavy door with an echoing thud, Lux sees Serana wandering by the main entrance reception.

"Oh." Serana says. "Hey."

"Hey." Lux returns the greeting, somewhat muted compared to her usual self. "Sooo... how's it going?"

"Honestly? I'm bored to tears here."

"Yea..." Lux concedes, feeling at least in some way responsible.

"Do you need me for something? I could do with getting out of this place for a while and Esran still looks at me like dirt."

"I've had a visitor." Lux announces.

"Oh?"

"Do you know what the Dregs of Cold Harbour are?"

A look of disgust appears on Serana's face, the one usually reserved for her father, as though someone had just wafted the previous night's chamber pot under her nose, or perhaps even as though she had been drenched in the contents. Lux shakes the thought from her head.

"What did it look like?" Serana asks with precise intent.

"Oh. You know, the usual for you Cold Harbour types; dark, mysterious, sexy..."

"Luxuria..." Serana scolds. "Did it have a name?"

"Not one that she gave."

"She." Serana confirms to herself. "Hm."

"What's with the Dregs anyway? I mean she basically said what they do; praise you, kill vampires, but what's the score with them?"

Serana looks away, then back at Lux a few times.

"They... performed the ritual but were refused entry to Cold Harbour but instead, became the Dregs and must serve the Daughters."

"Oh..." Lux says with disappointment, "Molag Bal can be a bit of an ass when he wants, eh?"

"I..." Serana says guiltily, "Lux... I still serve our dark lord, and in turn I am compelled to accept the respect of the Dregs of Cold Harbour."

"You know..." Lux probes, "You never did tell me what this ritual actually entails?"

"No." Serana says. "I didn't."

"I just don't get the shame you exhibit whenever it's mentioned. I mean, you're a vampire, you kill for sport, suck the life force from the living, powers to do what you want to who you want, but when it comes to that, you're suddenly all like... coy! I mean, the ritual... is it? What I think it is? You know?"

"It was disgusting." Serana says, making it clear that that is all she is going to say on the matter.

"Hm. Well, at least Harkon was handsome, and Velerica's still a fine looking woman!"

"Lux! Tsk. You never change."

"No, but seriously, what about this Dreg?"

"I'll meet with her. I should probably do my bit so we'll meet at Volkihar, she'll want to pay homage to my mother anyway."

"You think you might know her?"

"Maybe... but if it is who I think it is, there might be drama so please, hold back, it's normal."

"Ohh, drama amongst sexy vampires! I nearly sent her packing, I'm glad I stopped to hear her out now."

"How is Lydia?" Serana says to remind Luxuria, which indeed causes a grin on the Dragonborn.

"Oh... you know..." she sheepishly replies.

"And you say I'm a mixed personality. Don't forget, I knew you as a vampire and now you're making like an old couple."

"Yup, the only person-"

"Yea, yea, the only person you eat these days is Lydia. You still not bored of that one?"

"Bored of eating Lydia? Never!"

"I'm sorry though." Serana says.

"For what?"

"With everything that happened, there was never really any time to go over the ins and outs of vampire hierarchy. Though why your sire didn't teach you, I've no idea."

"I didn't hang about for lectures when I went to that lair. I was just off on my own, into the night, causing mischief."

"Well that hasn't changed then."

"Hm." Lux smiles. "Shame though."

"What is?"

"You know, I had to cure myself, then I met Lydia, and all that."

"And?"

"You know!"

Serana tuts and rolls her eyes, "If you hadn't met Lydia it wouldn't have made any difference."

"Really?"

Serana's shoulders drop a little and she walks away to sit at the stone seats edging the reception area, as though a weight suddenly forcing her down.

"After the ritual, I still can't..." she doesn't finish.


End file.
